Optical limiting and saturable absorption in nanodiamond suspensions

Abstract This chapter reports the experimental investigation of the effects of nonlinear light scattering on optical limiting and saturable absorption in nanodiamond suspensions. The results are obtained by using the nonlinear transmittance and Z-scan techniques, which were combined with the detecting of light pulses scattered in aqueous nanodiamond suspensions. The third-order nonlinear optical response of this material was studied in the nanosecond and femtosecond timescales at the wavelengths of 532, 800, and 1064 nm and within the optical communication window. The obtained results demonstrate that aqueous suspensions of detonation nanodiamonds possess a high ray stability and are attractive for optical limiting applications. The femtosecond Z-scan measurement at the wavelength of 800 nm also revealed a saturable absorption in this nanocarbon material.